On this day: May 22

2013: In a brutal attack recorded on closed-circuit TV and by bystanders, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale hit 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby (pictured) with a car and then hack him to death with a meat cleaver and knives. The Islamic converts, through testimony or their lawyers' arguments in court, indicated they killed Rigby for Allah. Cellphone footage replayed at the trial showed Adebolajo, still clutching a cleaver in his bloody hands, ranting that the killing was "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" for British soldiers killing Muslims overseas. The two were convicted of Rigby's murder in December 2013 and sentenced in February 2014, with Adebolajo receiving life in prison and Adebowale receiving a sentence of at least 45 years.

2012: The Tokyo Skytree opens to public as the tallest tower in world at 2,080 feet. It is also the second tallest manmade structure on Earth, after the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which stands 2,722 feet tall.

2011: An EF5 Tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people, making it the single deadliest tornado in the United States since modern record keeping began in 1950. The tornado was part of an outbreak of about 180 tornados that hit 15 central and Southern states, killing an additional 20 people besides the toll in Joplin. Damages in Joplin alone were estimated at $2.8 billion.

2008: The action-adventure movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the fourth in the "Indiana Jones" film series and the first in 19 years, premieres in theaters. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg and featured original "Raiders of the Lost Ark" stars Harrison Ford and Karen Allen along with series newcomer Shia LaBeouf. It would go on to gross more than $786 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the franchise's highest-grossing film when not adjusted for inflation and the second highest-grossing film of 2008.

2005: Voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft dies of prostate cancer at age 91 in Fullerton, California. Ravenscroft was best known for voicing the Kellogg's Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger for more than five decades, and for his uncredited singing of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from the classic Christmas TV special "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

2004: A powerful F4 tornado wipes out the town of Hallam, Nebraska. The tornado, which was part of an 11-day outbreak of 389 confirmed tornadoes that hit the central Plains and the Ohio Valley particularly hard, broke a width record at 2.5 miles wide and killed one resident.

2003: By playing in the Bank of America Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play in the PGA Tour in 58 years. The last woman to do so was Babe Zaharias, who qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Sörenstam shot five over par, tying for 96th out of the 111 golfers who finished the first two rounds, missing the cut.

2002: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of four counts of murder for his role in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four young black girls and injured 22 other people. Cherry was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison two years later. Two of Cherry's accomplices were also convicted in the bombing and sentenced to life in prison, with a third man dying before being charged.

2002: In Washington, D.C., the remains of missing Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park. Levy had disappeared on May 1, 2001, and the resulting investigation led to allegations of an affair with U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, a married, five-term Democrat from California. Condit was never named a suspect by police and was eventually cleared of involvement. Nearly eight years after Levy's death, D.C. authorities would charge Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, with Levy's murder. Guandique, who had already been convicted of assaulting two other women in the park where Levy's remains were found, was convicted in November 2010 and sentenced in 2011 to 60 years in prison.

1992: After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts "The Tonight Show" for the last time. Instead of having guests for his last show, Carson went out with a retrospective show taped before an invitation-only studio audience of family, friends, and crew. The show ended with Carson sitting on a stool alone at center stage as he bid viewers goodbye, similar to Jack Paar's last show.

1990: Boxer Rocky Graziano, considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing history, dies from cardiopulmonary failure at the age of 71 in New York City. Graziano beat Tony Zale in 1947 to become the middleweight champion of the world, but lost the title in a rematch with Zale the following year. He compiled a career record of 67 wins (52 by knockout), 10 losses and six draws.

1987: Professional tennis player Novak Djokovic, the year-end men's singles World No. 1 for 2011, 2012 and 2014, is born in Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Djokovic has won the Australian Open five times, Wimbledon twice and the U.S. Open once.

1982: Speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time, is born in Federal Way, Washington. Ohno is an eight-time Olympic medalist, winning a gold and a silver in 2002, a gold and two bronze in 2006, and a silver and two bronze in 2010. He's seen here at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, after winning gold in the 1,500-meter race.

1980: Namco releases the arcade game "Puck Man" in Japan. It would be licensed for distribution in the United States under the new name "Pac-Man" in October 1980 and go on to become an icon of 1980s culture.

1979: Actress and model Maggie Q, who started modeling at age 17 in Tokyo before breaking into films in Hong Kong, is born Margaret Denise Quigley in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has appeared in movies such as "Rush Hour 2," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Live Free or Die Hard" and also starred in the TV series "Nikita" (pictured).

1978: Actress Ginnifer Goodwin, best known for her TV roles in "Big Love" and "Once Upon a Time," is born Jennifer Michelle Goodwin in Memphis, Tennessee.

1977: Janet Guthrie sets the fastest time of the second weekend of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first woman to earn a starting spot in the race since its inception in 1911. She would end up finishing 29th with engine troubles in the race and go on to compete in two more Indy 500s, finishing ninth in 1978 and 34th in 1979. Overall, she competed in 11 IndyCar events finishing as high as fifth. She's also the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Winston Cup superspeedway race, finishing 15th in the the 1976 World 600.

1975: Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove, who won 300 games in his 17-year major-league career with the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, dies at the age of 75 in Norwalk, Ohio. Grove led the American League in wins in four separate seasons, in strikeouts seven years in a row, and had the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times.

1972: President Richard Nixon becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit Russia, meeting with Leonid Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders during his visit.

1970: Model and actress Naomi Campbell, one of the most recognizable and in-demand models of the 1980s and '90s, is born in London, England.

1968: The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores in the North Atlantic Ocean. The sub was declared "presumed lost" on June 5, 1968, and the cause of the sinking remains unknown. Sections of the hull of the Scorpion were eventually found in more than 9,800 feet of water about 460 miles southwest of the Azores.

1967: Writer and social activist Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form jazz poetry and a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, dies at the age of 65 in New York City from complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostate cancer.

1964: During a commencement speech at the University of Michigan, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson formally announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an "end to poverty and racial injustice" in America.

1963: Lamar Hunt, owner of the Dallas Texans of the American Football League, announces he is moving the team to Kansas City, Missouri, where the team would be renamed the Chiefs.

1960: An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale hits southern Chile. The quake, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded and caused tsunamis that battered the Chilean coast and devastated Hilo, Hawaii. The earthquake also caused landslides, flooding and a volcanic eruption in the region. Death estimates from the quake range from 2,230 to 6,000 with monetary damages estimated at between $400 million and $800 million.

1959: Singer-songwriter Morrissey, who rose to fame in the 1980s with the band The Smiths, is born Steven Patrick Morrissey in Davyhulme, Lancashire, England. Morrissey launched a successful solo career after The Smiths broke up in 1987.

1950: Singer-songwriter and poet Bernie Taupin, best known for his long-term collaboration with Elton John, is born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. Taupin wrote the lyrics for the majority of John's songs, including "Rocket Man," "Levon," "Crocodile Rock," "Tiny Dancer," "Candle in the Wind," "Bennie and the Jets," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and "Your Song."

1947: As part of what becomes known as the Truman Doctrine, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement. Historians often consider the effort the beginning of the Cold War, and the start of the containment policy to stop Soviet expansion.

1943: Baseball pitcher Tommy John, whose 288 career victories rank as the seventh highest total among left-handers in major-league history, is born in Terre Haute, Indiana. John, who played for seven teams over his career, is perhaps more known for the reconstructive elbow surgery that bears his name and saved his career after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm in 1974. He's seen here with Dr. Frank W. Jobe, who performed the revolutionary surgery.

1942: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.

1930: Politician and activist Harvey Milk, the first non-incumbent openly gay man in the United States to win an election for public office, is born in Woodmere, New York. Milk, who had previously run unsuccessfully for public office three times, was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance before being assassinated on Nov. 27, 1978. After his death he became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community.

1915: Lassen Peak in Northern California erupts. It is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous United States during the 20th century.

1914: Jazz composer, bandleader, pianist, poet and philosopher Sun Ra, known for his "cosmic philosophy" and his prolific recordings and live performances, is born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, Alabama. His music ranged from keyboard solos to big bands of more than 30 musicians and touched on virtually the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing music, from bebop to free jazz. He died of pneumonia at the age of 79 on May 30, 1993.

1907: Actor, director and producer Laurence Olivier, regarded by many to be the greatest actor of the 20th century, is born in Dorking, Surrey, England. Olivier is known for his three Shakespeare films as actor-director, 1944's "Henry V," 1948's "Hamlet" and 1955's "Richard III." He was nominated for a total of 12 Academy Awards, winning for Best Picture and Best Actor for "Hamlet." He also received honorary Oscars in 1947 for the "outstanding achievement" of bringing "Henry V" to the screen and in 1979 for his entire body of work. Besides his Shakespeare roles, Olivier played many other roles on stage and screen, including roles in movies such as "Wuthering Heights," "Rebecca," "Spartacus," "Sleuth," "Marathon Man," "A Bridge Too Far" and "The Boys from Brazil."

1907: Comic book writer and artist Hergé, best known for the "The Adventures of Tintin" comic book series, is born Georges Prosper Remi in Etterbeek, Belgium. Hergé wrote and illustrated the series from 1929 until his death in 1983. He is also known for two other comic book series, "Quick & Flupke" and "Jo, Zette and Jocko."

1906: More than two years after making their first successful powered flight, the Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent No. 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine." The patent did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine's surfaces.

1885: French author Victor Hugo, best known for the novels "Les Misérables" and "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame," dies of pneumonia at the age of 83 in Paris, France.

1872: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law, restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate military leaders.

1859: Physician and writer Arthur Conan Doyle, best known as the creator of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, is born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1856: U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner with a cane in the Senate chamber for a speech Sumner had made two days earlier attacking Southerners, including Brooks' uncle, Sen. Andrew Butler, who sympathized with pro-slavery violence in Kansas. Brooks would resign his seat amid attempts to oust him from the House. South Carolina voters elected him again, but he died before his next term began. Sumner's serious injuries kept him from serving in the Senate for three years, although he eventually recovered. Pictured is J.L. Magee's famous political cartoon of the incident.

1813: Composer Richard Wagner, primarily known for his operas, including "Tristan und Isolde" and the four-opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen," is born in Leipzig, Germany. The second of the four "Der Ring" operas is best known for the beginning of its Act III, known as the "Ride of the Valkyries."

1807: A grand jury indicts former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr on a charge of treason. The charge stemmed from allegations he was assembling an armed force to take New Orleans and separate the Western states from the Atlantic states to form an independent country. Burr was acquitted of treason, but the trial destroyed his already faltering political career.

1802: Martha Washington, the wife of President George Washington, dies at the age of 70 in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first first lady of the United States.

Comments

You share in the NBC Montana.com community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Please email wmiller@keci.com if a comment violates these standards. Due to a technical change, all comments posted before Jan. 9, 2014 no longer appear on NBCMontana.com. Comments posted after Jan. 14 are not impacted. We apologize for any inconvenience. The views expressed are not those of NBCMontana.com, NBCMontana or its affiliated companies. This is a community moderated forum. (Please note the 'Like' and 'Report' buttons.) By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.